When a calling party attempts to call a called party but the called party is busy or does not answer, the network may transfer the calling party to a voicemail system to allow the calling party to leave a voicemail for the called party. Generally, an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) will redirect the call to a toll free number associated with a service provider that is currently providing telephony service and voicemail service to the called party (i.e., a subscriber of the service provider). The service provider will store the voicemail into an account associated with the called party. The service provider will also provide an access number (e.g., a toll free number) where the called party is able to retrieve the stored voicemail.
Unfortunately, the subscriber must actively dial the access number to determine whether there is a newly saved voicemail. This is inconvenient to the subscriber and causes a delay in the subscriber being notified that a newly saved voicemail has been stored in the service provider's voicemail system.
In some systems, a stutter tone can be provided by a local switch to indicate to the subscriber that there is a new voicemail when the subscriber activates an endpoint device (e.g., picking up a handset of a telephone). However, this feature is only possible if the ILEC who owns the local switch is also providing the voicemail service to the subscriber. In other words, if the service provider that provides the voicemail service to the subscriber does not own the local switch, then the voicemail system of the service provider does not communicate with the local switch of the ILEC to allow the local switch to provide the stutter tone signal.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for providing a voicemail notification to a subscriber in a communication network, e.g., a packet network.